Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

Number of measures promoting the competitiveness of Serbian enterprises which is, ingeneral, at very low level. At the same time, it is essential to make the structural economychanges comprising the greater orientation towards export adjusted production, in order tosolve the problem of payment balance and high foreign trade deficiency. CEFTA represents thegreat chance for all the region countries, comprising market extension for 9 states of WestBalkan.4. ACCELERATING SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEWLYINDEPENDENT STATES REGION: STRATEGIC APPROACH – EVIDENCEFROM MOLDOVA, RUSSIA AND UKRAINE 204.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCHThe countries that have been involved in the Soviet orbit are currently restructuringtheir economies. The process of economic transition from a centrally planned to a marketbasedsystem takes enormous efforts and time for changing not only the economic situation inthe country but mentality and even culture.Culture as a dynamic characteristic of the nation has some significant potential for change.Some nations possess the better potential for the change; the others need longer time andstronger influence of catalyst factors.The mainstream of the research of the transition process is concentrated in severalareas: privatization; economy growth and its liberalization; institutional and legal reforms;socio-cultural consequences of the economic changes. The SME development is in the relationto all of these issues, and even becomes crucial for the country’s economic success.The focus of this chapter of the paper will be on a catalyst factors providing the easiertransition to the market driven mentality in SME sector. We would make the generalcomparison of the pros and corns in the targeted countries’ SME developments from thestandpoint of strategic management principles, using general environment assessmentmethodology and Porter’s Diamond model of nations’ competitive advantage applied to SMEsector, and five (+ complementary) forces approach (developed as an industry analysis, butwith the certain limitations, which we would describe later in this chapter, this tool could beused for the generalization of the SME problems in the transitioning countries).By the time the transition began, there was a little knowledge and thus an experience oftransformation from centrally planned economy to market driven in the region and even in theGlob. Nobody could advise or support the nations in their efforts for change. Therefore everynation went its own way even if they started from the same or close points. Somestandardization is helpful of course but should be carefully adjusted to the country’s cultural,political and current economic situation by policy makers. This statement has to be taken as abasic approach for the further research and suggestions/recommendations for the SMEdevelopment in the region.Theoretical arguments for the standardized recommendations for the SMEdevelopment in the Black Sea RegionAccording to the Life Cycle Theory (A. Adizes, 1989) any organization has to passthrough several stages in its lifecycle. The state, as the specific form of organization, at the20 Prepared by Dr. Irina NAOUMOVA, Associated Professor, Management Department and Member of the StrategicCommission for the Russian Federal Program of Retraining Managers, and College of Business Administration, UTK,Management Center, Knoxville, USA65